Is chauvinism on the way back?

David Hookes's swipe at a South African woman has reignited an age-old debate, writes Gary Tippet.

When hairy-chested blokes start abusing hairy-backed sheilas are they being woolly-headed or smart-arsed?

Or are there more serious questions: has the atmosphere of so-called political correctness gone so far that it has provoked a backlash from the proudly and loudly unreconstructed? In the ebb tide of the feminist revolution, are the boys shooting back?

On Monday, Victorian cricket coach David Hookes went on the public record to denigrate Helen Cohen Alon, the South African woman who has accused Shane Warne of harassment, as "a dopey, hairy-backed sheila".

The term, Hookes later lamely argued, was merely an age-old adjective commonly applied to South Africans.

In fact, it is an insult used by English-speaking South Africans against Afrikaners, so in this context it is not only sexist but racist. As such, the response was swift, loud and non gender specific.

Sex Discrimination Commissioner Pru Goward told 3AW that such language "gives bloke culture a bad name . . . words tell what somebody values. And what this says is that this bloke doesn't think much of women."

Victorian Premier Steve Bracks said that Hookes's choice of "obviously disparaging comments" did nothing to help defend Warne.

Hookes retreated, telling his radio program listeners, many of whom had also taken him to task, that "it reflected poorly on me".

But the episode has led to suggestions that he might also be reflecting a trend: a re-emergence of chauvinism, openly prejudiced and publicly defiant in the face of political correctness and feminism.

Social commentator Hugh Mackay says there appears to be a resurgence of "men being comfortable with masculinity . . . but the point is that masculinity is now being defined in lots of different ways ranging from a throwback to old-style chauvinism among some unreconstructed older blokes who are saying, 'We've had enough of being good and we're going to break out.' "

Among younger men, he says, it is more subtle. Some are "genuinely liberated in a post-feminist way" and have so embraced the idea of sexual equality they feel free to joke about gender - often in "incorrect" language.

Heather Gridley, senior lecturer in psychology at Victoria University, is less sure of that: "It's an interesting point, but I think it's a case of equality when it suits them."

But she adds that there is an increasing element of "in-your-facedness", of people deliberately trying to be outrageous, that flows from humour to some public comments. This reflects not so much a lowering of community standards as perhaps a "broadening", she says.

Psychoanalyst David Tacey, author of Remaking Men, says people tend to think political correctness has made more inroads than it has.

"There are whole dimensions of society where it hasn't taken hold at all. To some extent it's like a superficial veneer on top of society. Underneath, a lot of things - particularly to do with Australian masculinity - have not changed one bit," he says.

"The feminist wave in Australia is now receding . . . and men can sense that and a lot of men in public life are ready to take advantage of it and happily highlight their locker-room humor. All you have to do is turn on The Footy Show and there it is, in all its pristine glory."

Deakin University associate professor of public policy Linda Hancock believes the trend to voyeuristic reality TV and so-called "sports-entertainment" reflects something of a "race to the bottom" in sections of the media that can be echoed in general society.

"I'm sure there's a jockstrap culture that's always been there and is characteristic of a lot of Australian sporting areas. One would hope we had moved away from that, but I guess giving sports people even more fame and public profile has promoted that culture beyond what it's worth and into a more public forum," she says.

Heather Gridley agrees. The more outrageous The Footy Show's Sam Newman gets, the more he seems to become something of an icon, she says.

But some commentators see such gleeful incorrectness as a consequence rather than a cause.

Mackay says recent years have seen what he calls an outbreak of prejudice, beginning with the rise of Pauline Hanson and continuing with the children overboard and asylum seeker issues.

Government attitudes have sent signals of "almost official permission" that open prejudice in the guise of free speech is acceptable, he says.

John Schwartz, senior lecturer in media and communication at Swinburne University, believes the community has been shown that political correctness is passe and they can now say what they like.

"I suspect Hookes is pretty aware of what he's doing. I think he's aware there's an overall climate . . . if our political leaders do it, why can't we? He knows he can provoke people."

Unfortunately, says David Tacey, such provocation is laced with cruelty. "It's victim-based. It's like Sam Newman's street talk segments where he turns the average person into an idiot and actually labels them that way. Somehow or other we're supposed to find that funny, when it's terribly demeaning."